March 22nd 2015 - Weekly Review

Focus of the Week: Bottom - Deep Half Back Takes & Waiter Sweep, Top - Spiral Armbar, Back Takes

Theme & Techniques
Beginner/All Levels: Guillotine defense against wall, Basic guard break,  Double Under Pass
Partnered and Rolled With: Sam, Zack, Greg, Justin, Austin, Anthony

Everyone I worked with seemed to have some trouble with the guillotine defense.  It mostly boiled down to trouble with gaining and maintaining posture.  Usually if I tell someone to scrape the opponent up the wall it solves the problems.  I think they just want to lift their head back with using their neck instead of moving up and into the opponent.

For the guard break I've been trying to make it as slick as possible.  I start each time with hands at the sides and then go.  Lapels together, straighten arm, hand on the label, elbow inside, raise body with shoulder over hand, slide knee to sit bone, other knee goes back and twist to open.  I'm trying to get rid of all unnecessary motions so as soon as I get my grip it should just happen.

On Tuesday, I asked Zack to work on a mini-pendulum sweep that I saw in a video recently.  It worked pretty well and Greg made a few minor changes to make it better.  This may be a new addition for me.  We worked on some followups for if they defend by basing their hand out and it has a lot of good options.  Zack wanted to work on some half guard and getting the underhook.  We kind of messed around with it and rolled a bit.

On Friday, Greg showed him some harness grip back mount recovery techniques that we both worked on a bit.  The big takeaway was the first hook to put in should be of the choking arm not the underhook arm. 

Zack wanted to work half guard bottom more.  I suggested that he should use his legs to affect my balance more rather than just triangling them and just using his arms to fight.  I felt pretty good teaching that stuff and felt smooth as I was demonstrating it.  Hopefully the points that I was trying to make made sense.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Jerad, Dwight, Bhuvana, Mike (Tumbleweed)

I didn't get to roll with as many people as I would have liked Saturday.  When I was free it seemed like everyone was changing and leaving or rolling with someone else.  It seems like there are more and more people that I never roll with and I'm not sure why that is.

Jerad: We slow rolled a bit to get warmed up.  I felt uncoordinated and did some silly things that didn't quite workout but I guess that's what it's for.  We had 2 or 3 good rolls.  He dominated the first although there were some good points.  The second I was on top and attacking from side control for a while.  I ended up getting reversed from the position and spent the rest of the time defending.  His mount is very difficult to escape and I commented on it later that he's able to squeeze his knee together more than anyone else that I roll with.  Which prevents mount escapes and prevents me from entering deep half guard.

Dwight: We rolled gi this time and I started in guard every time and played some butterfly, closed, and some open.  He was good at stepping over my head whenever I went for an omoplata and kind of nullified that game.  I had some success with butterfly sweep though.  I caught him with a few things and we got in some good rolling.

Bhuvana: I had a couple of goals to take her back or go to deep half if the situation presented itself.  I never was able to take her back completely.  I did have mount and side mount and was working toward a few things but she seemed to be a little timid today and tapped early a few times.  Then we would discuss where she was and if she really needed to tap.  She allowed me to work on the waiter sweep a few times, it's a little difficult working with someone who doesn't know deep half guard because she fell over pretty easily the first few times. 

Mike: He had me from the get go.  He started with a cartwheel pass that I kind of scoffed at, but it put him on my back and I was defending from then on out.  I never really did get him off my back except for a short stint in an inverted triangle.  He eventually got me with a wristlock and seemed pleased as I usually don't tap to those.

We went over an interesting back mount arm trap that I think I'm going to develop myself.  It's kicking the leg over the underhooked arm but turning your body before hand to get a different angle on the kick and hooking your leg behind them.  I can definitely see the value in it.

March 15th 2015 - Weekly Review

I was rolling with Ben at our usual pace and flowed into a scissor sweep.  Unfortunately he planted his hand in a way that put some weird torque on his elbow and he felt a lot of popping.  When he went over and shouted, I thought the worst.  I was expecting to see a bone sticking out of his arm but after a trip to the hospital I was later informed that nothing was broken and he was given some meds and told to keep an eye on it.

Hopefully this doesn't affect his job too much and he can return to the mats soon.  I keep replaying in my head if there was a way that I could have prevented this, it happened too fast.  I know it was an accident but I still feel like shit. 

Focus of the Week: Bottom - Deep Half Top - Spiral Armbar

Theme & Techniques
Beginner/All Levels: Koshi Guruma, Side Control Tripod Escape, Kimura from Side Control
Partnered and Rolled With: Josh (New), Mike (Lawyer), Robert, Jordan, Conan

On Tuesday, Greg asked me to work with new guy Josh because he has confidence that I will help teach him all the stuff and Greg didn't have to check up on us as much.  Great compliment!  Had to go over some basic throw stuff like keeping the feet closer together and sticking the hip out and securing the head and finally how to fall.  He made the connection between the side fall that we do in the beginning in class and why we do the legs the way we do.

I had a little love hate relationship with the tripod escape this week.  One thing that helped was Greg pointing out that after getting the underhook we want to move down so our head doesn't fun into their knee.  I think this is the biggest problem I've had in the past with this technique.  I feel like I'm too flat and don't bring my butt up high and end up with my shoulder on the floor like it's supposed to be.  By Friday I felt a lot better about the position.

Got my butt kicked by Robert on Tuesday and Conan on Friday.  I didn't sleep well this week and I felt slow and tired.  Working with Robert made me want to improve my wrestling.  I'm constantly losing from the headlock and turtle position because I'm not confident in fighting from there.  I can go to deep half but maybe now it's time to improve the direct approach.  I showed Conan the spiral armbar that I've been working on and he liked it enough that he wanted to teach it for Sunday no-gi.

I had a nice conversation with Greg after Tuesday class.  Yes I had a shitty day but it didn't bother me that much.  I really think my outlook has changed for the better since I dealt with some ego issues a few months ago.  My ego is healthier and I'm not going to get upset about gym losses but I can still analyze them and figure out what I need to improve on.

I also brought up getting stuck in quarter guard and getting overwhelmed recently through the conversation I came to the realization that I need to limit the times when I think I can rest.  Just getting to half or quarter guard is not good enough for me to think I'm safe and take a breather.  I need to be going right into the next thing to sweep or progress to a better position.  Thinking about it, there is some type of mental reset that I do when I get to quarter guard when I think okay now I can start doing these steps.  That either needs to happen quicker or not happen at all and I just need to keep going.  This is definitely something I'm going to be focusing on and monitoring for the next couple of weeks. 

Open Mat
Rolled With: Darijo, Fuji, Jerad, Bauer, Ben, Ross, Bhuvana

For the hour between the kids class and open mat I stayed around and drilled some stuff with Greg and Jerad.  With Jerad I drilled the spiral armbar and felt pretty good about it.  Greg drilled the wrecking ball spider guard pass that he saw from a Keenan video.  I learned some details and practiced it a few times myself but didn't really like stepping on my opponent's leg.  Jerad had a variation that he also liked and practiced.  We also worked on another guard pass that was like a crescent kick to leg drag.  It was really cool and I can see myself using it.  However, I think I was a little overzealous while learning something knew because Greg had to tell me to relax a couple times.

Darijo: My main goal of the day was to get to deep half and play with the position.  He didn't really let me do that.  I did make to deep half once and was able to sweep.  One thing that helped was focusing on posture with my head.  I need to push the back of my head against my opponent's thigh, and that will give me the best mobility and strength under their base.

Fuji: Fuji let me take top position to start both of our rolls.  So I passed his guard by using a modified over under.  I got right into the farside armbar setup position and took my time completing the setup.  He said something like, it's there, go for it.  Eventually I was able to get his arm free.  The second time we rolled he turned it up a notch.  I passed his guard again but I had to deal with his turtle.  I was able to turn him over into back mount and started working for a bow & arrow, but he was eventually able to work his way out of it and move into my guard.  He's really good at smashing my omoplata I might have to stop trying that on him.  He got his brabo grip and that was all she wrote after the pressuring and smashing.

Jerad: I had some success early on.  After being swept, I pulled him into closed guard.  I started working for the omoplata and had his arm isolated into my hip.  Once I freed my other leg and went for the full technique he really postured up and I went right into the back roll.  I kind of ended up in a mount but he had a frame that kept me from getting full mount.  I think I should have windshield wipered and moved to side control but it didn't occur to me.  He recovered all the way to butterfly guard and swept.  From there he dominated and eventually submitted me with something.

I mentioned that I felt like I was on a bit of a plateau or a slump.  I've been getting my guard passed more often lately and my usual stuff isn't working as well.  He assured me that I was still difficult to roll with and said that maybe it was time for a different focus.  I've been working on deep half for quite a while now, mostly because I had the DVDs at my disposal.  Maybe a little break from the position will give me some perspective when I return to it at a later date.  I think I may look into sitting guard or butterfly. 

Bauer: We didn't roll because he wanted to drill the scissor sweep.  I gave him a few pointers and did some reps for myself.  I like to think of it like a judo throw and really get them to load up before kicking them over.  Eventually we moved into the cross choke and he was pulling his elbows out and once that was fixed he was doing fine.  We combined the 2 techniques together and repped them for a while.  Finally I asked him to help me with deep half and give me a little resistance.  It turned out to be a good workout and I had some trouble but some of it worked out.  I really need to focus on my grips next for the back take type stuff. 


Ross: I was still a little shocked from Ben so I was extra careful with Ross.  I don't remember much of what I did, except a north/south choke that he defended at first and then when I regrouped and went back to it, it was even tighter.  He asked me if I had any tips for him and we talked about recovering half guard from quarter.

Bhuvana: She wanted to work on mount and side mount escapes and I was happy to oblige.  After some rolling I eventually ended up in the mount and setup the spiral armbar.  I went for it but she was able to get up and stack, that shouldn't have happened, I wonder what I did wrong.  After that she drilled the elbow escape and I gave her some pointers on how to get the elbow in and then use it like a crowbar or the jaws of life.

March 8th 2015 - Weekly Review

Theme & Techniques
Beginner/All Levels: Double Leg Takedown, Americana from Mount, Paper Cutter from Side Mount
Partnered and Rolled With: Anthony, Dave, Greg, Jordan, Zack, Bhuvana

Training seemed to go by too fast this week.  Not too much to say.  I did the double leg on my left side because my toe was swollen and bothering me a bit.  I focused mostly on trying to wrap my hands around the calves and my penetration step.

I'm getting better with the bread cutter.  I was previously having trouble with trusting the footwork.  When Greg demonstrates it he moves his shoulder down the body to give a little extra stability.  I asked Greg about trying to walk out and switch hips with good timing to defend the bread cutter.  He seemed to think it was possible to defend it that way and we checked to see if the choke could be finished from the bottom.  Might be a possible escape for this technique but the choke is still possible.

Rolling was great.  Mount escaping is much stronger than my top game.  I had some especially tough rolls with Zack and Greg.

Open Mat
Focus of the Week: Ankle Locks Offense and Defense, Deep Half
Rolled With: Aquila, Ray, Henry, Adam, Austin, Bhuvana

Not too many easy rolls this week.

Mike ran into a wristlock from backmount and wondered if it worked.  We tried it a few times but it wasn't really affecting me that much so it was a little bit of a bust.  When I tried it on him it felt like I had to contort myself too much to finish it.  I attempted a deep half to bow and arrow that I saw a video for this week.  I think I missed a few details but it gave me hope for something that I could try.  I put the video down below. 

I spent quite a bit of time with Ray in both gi and no gi.  I did some ankle lock work with both he and Mike.  I think I may be focusing on them soon.  While I feel more confident with Ray than ever, it still feels like my options are limited.  Many of the chokes that I attempt on him are easily shrugged away.  At least I'm able to move and play a little guard on him.

Henry and I had a pretty tough battle.  I started out in a great position and attempted several submissions.  He turned the tables eventually though and I wasn't able to handle his explosiveness.  It made me think about what I would need to do differently.  More cardio?  

Probably the best bit of information I got from the class was learning how to correctly execute the spiral armbar.  I've been getting to the starting position but I was never sure how to finish it, I thought you had to step over their head like a regular armbar.  Greg showed me that I had to turn the hips and sit tucking my foot under their head and keeping their wrist in the armpit and squeezing the knees tight.  I think this is going to instantly be an addition to my game.

March 1st 2015 - Weekly Review

Focus of the Week: Preventing Opponent's Grips, Back Takes

Theme & Techniques
Beginner/All Levels: Standing Headlock Defense Hammer Lock RNC, Elbow Escape From Mount, Armbar from Mount
Partnered and Rolled With: Anthony, Dave, Zack, Greg, Conan, Robert, Jeff, Zack


I think I realized for the first time this week that the objective of the elbow escape is to get them to lift their leg.  I always thought I was trying to shrimp out between their knees and if they came up that was a plus.  Kind of silly now that I think about it.

Helped my partners with a couple things here and there.  Like for the headlock defense to not go down to your knees too soon.  If they're not down yet they may be able to push against you and gain some leverage.  For the mount escape, my partner wasn't always covering my calf before freeing the first leg.  I caught myself doing this a couple times too.

On Friday to make this go faster we added in the scissor sweep.  So once we did our escape we would go right into scissor and the other person would be in mount.  2 techniques for the price of one.
During mount positional sparring I felt pretty good about my mount escapes but not so good on my mount attacking.  I got some upa escapes and the elbow escape but mostly went to half or deep half.  From the top I wasn't getting any good collar grips and even if I did I don't have much faith in the cross choke.  Ezekiel is always there but people have been doing better at blocking it lately.

Advanced: Turtle farside single leg counter - Leg americana, Roll to Reverse Omoplata, Switch Reverse Omoplata
Partnered and Rolled With: Adam, Mike, Brian (AF), Will, Henry

Ido Pariente was in town and came and taught class Wednesday night.  It was a pretty tough warm-up.  I got through it all so I guess I'm still in okay shape, but don't get me wrong I was huffing and puffing at the end.  We did some jogging and various animal walking and Jiu-Jitsu type movements down the floor.  Some of the guys were having trouble with the cartwheels and other more gymnastic like motions.  I need to improve on my back roll to hand stand.  One exercise that he made clear was important was a four point movement where you turn 90 degrees four times going from bear crawl to crab walk.

The techniques were pretty cool although I don't end up in the position too often.  It's when you are attacking from top turtle and they grab the far (wrong) leg.  The first movement was to make a knee strike motion to their elbow so the other leg could scissor the arm for the americana type motion.  I got Adam pretty good the first time and I think it scared him a little bit.

The second move we did the windshield wiper type motion to switch their hand to be under the other leg.  Then take the outside arm and feed it under their leg to grab their pants near the knee.  Then rolling.  At first only half way to see if they roll or not.  If they don't you can get the tap there.  If they do you follow them switch hands on the knee grip and put your other hand in their armpit.  Then taking the legs back to the side.

The alternative was mostly for bigger guys like Adam and I.  Instead of rolling after switching the arm we reached across to the opponent's leg for a switch type grip.  Then putting belly pressure down on the back of their head.  Also effective but I had a little trouble connecting my hands.

Ido tried to roll with everyone that he could, unfortunately I wasn't one of them.  I did have some great rolls regardless.
Adam: I struggled to keep my guard and felt like I made some good moves.  Eventually he passed and I dealt with quite a few butchers and was never able to get any semblance of guard back.  I kept him from submitting me but it sucks being on the bottom.

Mike:  I sat guard and we had a decent exchange as I played some de las riva and deep half guard.  He finally passed my guard when I was in deep half and he got his leg free.  Eventually I regained before the round was over.

Brian: I wasn't able to submit Brian this time, he did a good job defending.  I was mostly on top in side control and mount.  I attempted to setup the rolling back take but I think he was wise to my scheme.  I was working on isolating arms trying to pry them off while dealing with his monster bridges.  I'm feeling pretty good about my mount control lately but not about my submissions.

Will: I haven't seen him for quite a while.  He gave me a little bit of trouble as I was passing his guard.  What finally worked for me though was the back stroke to knee grab and push that I saw Greg do a couple Tuesdays ago.  I think this may be one of those times when something is automatically enveloped into my game.  I ended up keeping him in mount for a while.  He attempted his inverted escape but I was just barely able to get low enough to stop it.  I ended up in technical mount after attempting a bow & arrow and switched to an ezekiel that I slipped in without him being able to defend.

Henry: I kept him at bay today.   My half guard control is working much better against him and I think the aggression that I'm putting into it to keep the space is helping.  I went to deep half guard a couple of times and felt like I had good control although I never was able to sweep him yet.  I went from turtle to deep half.  Even though I had an underhook he kept pushing me back down with his overhook.  He did pass my guard at one point but I was able to regain it back. 

Open Mat
Rolled With: Austin, Ben, Bauer, Tami

Got in some drilling time with Greg between the kids class and open mat.  He was drilling some back take stuff.  I drilled the Rolling back take from mount first.  Some of the big takeaways were putting the second leg over their shin before rolling.  Controlling the arm or hip after kicking their leg over.  The second thing I worked on was the back roll from the omoplata when they posture.  The big thing Greg suggested was to be more explosive with it.  I also need to keep a hold of the wrist as I'm going over.  The last technique I worked on was the basic butterfly sweep.  I thought I had this down pretty well but he gave me some valuable pointers.  I wasn't squeezing their arm enough on the overhook arm.  Then I was trying to get out of the way when doing the sweep.  Greg actually wants me to push into them more and this made a huge difference but it was only a little different movement.

Austin: He did a good job of defending my armbars today.  There was one point when I had him in an omoplata and he initiated the roll.  I decided to roll again for good measure.  I was trying to work on my butterfly guard, but he kept standing up so I went to x-guard.  He said that kept happening to him, duh if you try to stand up in someone's butterfly you get put in x-guard. 

Ben: I hit a mounted triangle from side mount that I was surprised worked out so well.  I did miss putting his arm high into my hip.  I think after last week he's enjoying going a little harder with me and not holding back.  Not that I'm being mean but the thing that I won't let him have is grips of any kind.

Bauer: Always a pleasure testing myself against him.  From technical mount I fed his collar to my under hand and then controlled his head.  It was kind of a bow and arrowish choke.  In our other roll I went to single leg-x at one point and did the technical standup sweep.  I was able to submit him with kimura from north/south.  I attempted an omoplata from mount at one point but couldn't figure out how to put my leg over his head for the twisting armbar. 

Greg showed him an escape from the hip switch half guard escape and Bauer and I drilled it quite a few times.  You grab the belt and use your elbow to keep them from getting too high on your chest.  Then wrap the leg and attempt to move to mount, if they push back you go to back mount.  Bauer also worked on the gordo sweep and the triangle choke.  I gave him some pointers on pushing the knee that I saw in the video to make the triangle tighter.  He was having trouble keeping bigger guys' posture down when transitioning to the side.

Tami: She is very good at defending.  I was surprised at how well she defended her neck and kept her arms in.  I attempted some collar chokes that she got out and fought her turtle a little bit.  We rolled a couple times and I gained some respect for her defenses since this was the first time we rolled together.

February 22nd 2015 - Weekly Review

Focus of the Week: Sweep Follow through, Butterfly Guard with Collar Grip

Theme & Techniques
Beginner/All Levels: O Goshi, Back Mount Collar Choke, Bow & Arrow
Partnered and Rolled With: Robert, Brian (Volley Ball), Jordan, Zack, Dave, Conan

No problem with practicing the techniques this week.  However while being demonstrated on, Greg showed what would happen if he didn't grab the leg at the knee during the bow & arrow.  I went to my usual escape and he was like no no just roll.  So I went the other way and he was like no no just roll, finally after the third time I figured out what he wanted me to do.  I got validated though when Robert had a hard time doing the same thing.  On Friday, Greg came by and showed Brian and I a variation on the bow & arrow to drop the underhook all the way to the ankle.  Neither of us could make it that far without tapping.

Had some good rolling sessions from the back.  I didn't get too many submissions but I felt pretty good about my control.  I did have to switch to mount or side mount quite a few times but tried to keep the harness grip.  When I did lose the position it was because I let my partner's hips get too high.  I've got to figure out a way to control that better.

Zack and I rolled with Greg on Tuesday shark tank style.  I felt pretty good about my performance in the beginning.  There were a few close calls where I thought I was getting somewhere and then he took it away.  He attempted a submission possibly an armbar and I was able to escape and come up and start passing guard.  Eventually he worked his way to side control and knee on belly and grinded me out until he got the baseball bat choke.

I made an observation while Greg was rolling with Zack.  After he passed his guard Zack was stiff arming him.  Greg's response was to do a back stroke like motion and grab the pants of his lower leg and then move his knees to the other side and the stiff arm went away.  It's a simple thing but it's huge for my guard passing because this is something that stops me every now and again.  I used this a couple of times during open mat.


Open Mat
Rolled With: Jerad, Adam, Ross, Austin, Ben, Bhuvana

Jerad: Had my weekly rolls with Jerad.  He is consistently in the top 5 people that can make me feel like I'm not as good as I think I am.  Saturday was one of those rare occasions where I caught him, and with a loop choke no less.  Our last roll went quite a bit longer and it entailed our usual pattern event though I felt improvement in some places.  He eventually submitted me with a triangle that I was attempting to bust out of and maybe something else after that but I don't remember.

Adam:  We fought for a long time and most of it I spent on my back in side control, but I do feel like I'm improving.  I regained guard a few times and got to omoplata position and then triangle and then baratoplata but couldn't seal the deal.  The granby roll was working well for me all day.  Eventually I got worn out and he was able to complete an americana.  I made the comment that it was so demoralizing to work so hard to get guard back all of those times and then just to have it passed again.

Ross: Before we started rolling he said that he'd try to be a good partner for me.  Not sure where that came from; he's always a challenge, but he may have been tired from competition class.  We went over some ways I set up the north/south choke after I caught him a couple times.  He almost caught me with an ankle lock but I was able to stand and get out of it.  We went over some 2 on 1 from guard and I gave him some pointers on things that I do from there.  We did some positional sparring to practice it.

Austin: I worked on my butterfly guard focusing on the collar grip.  At one point he made the comment that I was doing blue belt magic.  He attempted the tozi pass on me but put himself right into an omoplata.  We went over the pass a little and I told him the reason I was able to do that was because of head position.  We rolled a couple other times and I remember him defending my armbar pretty well with the RNC hand position that I showed him a while ago.

Ben: We started out and he was being pretty hanzy with his grip fighting so I decided to take it to him.  I got a good collar grip and went for the butterfly guard pass and kept on him until he was swept.  I spent a lot of time in KOB trying to setup the baseball bat but I couldn't get him to tap to it. Not sure how the roll ended but he appreciated the extra aggression that I put into the roll.

Bhuvana: She requested earlier to work on the bow & arrow since she missed all of the classes this week. We went over the basic way from back mount and I showed her a few variations to get an idea of how else it could be done.  We rolled and she did a great job of avoiding being submitted.  I spent a lot of time in mount trying get an arm free.  Eventually I setup a mounted triangle and then switched to armbar when she attempted to stack.

February 15th 2015 - Weekly Review

Missed a couple of classes this week.  I've decided to temporarily suspend Wednesday advanced classes to spend more time with my family.  Friday morning however, I either turned my alarm off in my sleep or it didn't go off.  I was pretty upset about that.

I returned to the gym to swim a couple days this week and it felt pretty exhausting. 


Theme & Techniques
Beginner/All Levels: Head Lock Escape Leg Hook to Armbar, Turtle Turnover to Side and Back Mount
Partnered and Rolled With: Harvey, Bhuvana, Nic, Brian (Backdraft), Anthony, Ray, Sam, Greg

Bhuvana had a little trouble using the technical standup to get to the armbar in one move.  Apparently many did because Greg stopped us and demonstrated that part again.  Probably the most important thing that I showed her though was to focus more on the pulling lower shoulder under our bodies when trying to get the elbow on the floor.  Then being willing to twist multiple times until the elbow is free.

For attacking turtle, I showed her my trick for grabbing the near side lapel and then switching sides.  I don't know why everyone doesn't do this.  One thing that was missing from this back take from turtle was I wasn't rolling them up a bit to free my bottom leg to be a hook.  I would generally just end up in side control or a half assed back mount that could be escaped.

We did some up/down/out from turtle and Anthony was the only one person that was able to escape my turtle with a granby and got to guard and I was like "good job, totally legit."  Otherwise I granbied my way out of most turtles or pulled guard.  I have a lot of trust in the granby now especially after seeing Greg do it so much and succeeding.  I was telling other people to have more faith in the technique and heard that Bhuvana and Harvey both were able to complete it a couple of times.

Ray and I had a good bout where I almost took his back.  He tried to leg lock me, to which I attempted a bow and arrow that I thought was close.  I ended up in closed guard in the end after a failed stacked armbar but would have liked the tap or back mount instead.

After class, I showed Nic how I usually stop the granby roll by mostly holding the far hip and keeping ahead of them.  I realized that the room was silent and everyone was watching us.  I guess I was instructor like at that time but didn't plan on being the center of attention.

Zack and I did another shark tank for Greg.  We started from standing with 6 minute rounds.  I fought as hard as I could and surprised myself with a few things.  I don't think I ever scored any points though.  I regained guard a few times though.  The first round I held off being submitted until the final seconds, he caught me with a straight armlock.  I was trying to be funny and ask if the clock was going to run out but Ray and Zack thought I was trying to tap and panicked a little.

A couple of cool things that I did were: Regain half guard to butterfly half guard to full butterfly but he was able to pass it soon after.  Regain half guard from mount to deep half but wasn't able to complete the sweep.  Greg pulled guard at one point and I fought pretty hard to pass but I couldn't get out of his spider.  Otherwise he used spider guard, single leg-x, and butterfly to sweep me and then attacked a lot from side mount.

Open MatRolled With: Jerad, Dwight, Ben, Fuji, Mike

Jerad: We slow rolled for a while in the beginning and messed around a little bit.  Mostly he dominated me like usual but I had my moments.  I passed his guard and fought from the top for quite a while and came close with a darce choke.  I think I messed up when I went for a mounted triangle.  Then I was on the bottom for the remainder.  I ended up in the torque sweep position a couple times but couldn't seal the deal.  He knows what I'm trying to do because Greg has been doing it a lot lately.  One thing that he did was to use a brabo grip to pass my guard in place of the underhook because he said that it is difficult to get the underhook against me.  I'm having a hard time remembering what submissions that he got on me.  I know one was an americana that he hit during a scramble where I made a huge mistake of pulling his arm up over my head. 

Dwight:  He doesn't bring his gi to open mat to I went no gi with him.  I was a little concerned that I'd have a hard time with him but it turned out not being that bad. We rolled for a good 20 minutes.  I usually started in butterfly on the bottom and there was also a lot of half guard.  I mostly dominated the matches or at least kept him out of good positions.

Ben: He was having calf cramps and looked tired.  I guess Bauer gave him a run for his money and sucked out some of his soul.  I mostly played guard until I could sweep.  I was a little lackluster and he was able to pass my guard a few times and I eventually got back to guard.  I eventually caught him with the omoplata using the new finish trick. 

Fuji: He asked me if I wanted to roll or do the side control stuff and I just said roll.  I was way too sloppy and loose while trying to setup my cross guard omoplata and he stacked and I gave up guard.  He worked his way to the brabo (which translates to mean) and after several feeble attempts to escape he finally choked me.  We discussed my guard and got Mike involved a little bit in discussing my options and how to deal with Fuji's attack.  The baratoplata seems like a pretty good option but I also need to not be so sloppy with my technique.  

Mike:  He drilled some berimbolo stuff before we rolled and it was very technical.  He was able to pull it off during our roll as well.  Somehow I was eventually in the guard passing position on top.  I made it to quarter guard and did a rolling back take but only went to side control.  I went for another rolling back take and finally succeeded in somewhat taking his back.  I attacked bow and arrow and then armbar.  I made it to mount and started to work toward the baratoplata and we had a little laugh when he realized what I was trying to do.  Somehow from there I ended up putting him in an inverted triangle (inverted isn't the right word but I'm not sure of the triangles name where your body is above and behind them).  I tried to make it tighter but was unable eventually I trapped one of his arms in a kimura and got the tap.  We went over the rolling back take and he gave me some pointers on going to the truck position. 

February 8th 2015 - Weekly Review

Focus of the Week: No Mind

Theme & Techniques
Beginner/All Levels: Half Guard Pass, Turtle Escape - Granby Roll
Partnered and Rolled With: Josh (New), Jeff, Zack, Anthony, Conan, Bhuvana, Greg

I had a little trouble with this half guard pass on Tuesday.  During drilling it was fine but during rolling I didn't feel like my foot could get on their thigh to push down for the initial knee slide.  Friday I did feel better about it and figured out my major problem was keeping good pressure on their thigh and moving my hips way to the side.  Previously I thought we were doing more of the tripod pass during this week of the curriculum but Greg seems to favor this one.

Zack manufactured a friendly rivalry between us during the teaching portion of Friday's class.  He made a comment while Greg was teaching the granby that I was getting the better of him while rolling from the turtle and asked some specific questions on how to make the roll work.  I was a little flattered but played it off by saying that it helps that I knew the technique he was going to try.  He also requested that Greg put me with him during the turtle portion again.

Greg is preparing for Pan Ams and asked Zack and I to shark tank him.  We did 4 x 6 minute rounds alternating with little rest in between for Greg.  I decided to take a really aggressive mindset and throw caution to the wind and just attack at a fast pace.  I feel this did a couple things for me.  First I turned my brain off and didn't over think things.  I just kept trying to move and insist on whatever I wanted.  Next I went for things that I don't normally go for like ankle locks.  I don't know how much Greg got out of it but I got a lot and I hope we do it more often in the coming weeks.

Open Mat
Rolled With: Fuji, Jeff, Mike (Tumbleweed), Brian (AF), Bhuvana

Had some good rolls on Saturday and I felt faster than usual.  I think the tournament prep for Greg helped me loosen up quite a bit and not think as much.

Fuji: He wanted to resume his pure side control defense that we did a while back.  Which was great for me as well but I felt a little guilty for all of the smashing that I did on him.  No fuck that, he's smashed me more than I could return the favor in the past.  I focused on my knee on belly and kept constant movement and tried to stay ahead of him.  I feel pretty good about the improvements that I made from previously. 

Jeff: I worked with him on some half guard knee shield stuff that we talked about on Friday and he seemed to take to it pretty well.  The shaolin sweep is still something I'm trying to perfect but I showed him what I knew of it.  Then just using the knee shield to kick and get the underhook was good info to share too.  We may have only rolled once but I stayed pretty light with him and after passing with a over/under he kept trying to push my head into the inverted triangle but I wouldn't allow it.  We went over setting up the kimura after that from side mount and some guard stuff too like omoplata.

Brian: He asked me if I used any tricks to remember things for my blog.  I said no it just got easier over time and I would make mental notes in class about the things that I was going to write about.  He's thinking about writing his own blog or a training log.  Our first roll went pretty quickly and I caught him with an wristlock after an omoplata sweep.  Then he jumped around me and on my back and almost got me with a bow and arrow.  I grabbed my own gi and held it away from my neck and weathered the storm.  I told him after the roll that he should have went for the armbar because my arm was in the right position but he had tunnel vision for the choke.  After getting out of the choke I recovered deep half and swept to side control.  I worked my way to north/south choke but he had a hand in.  I started to work back to side control when he made a huge attempt to escape and brought his hand out.  I went right back into the north/south and finished it.   

Mike: We did some barato plata work but I didn't feel great about it.  I'll have to review some more info.  However, I felt great going up against Mike rolling-wise and I attribute this to the rolls with Greg this week too.  He was attempting to pass standing and I was all over his legs and went to deep half.  I was able to get a double unders pass and went right into side control.  From there I worked for the kimura but settled on the armbar.  John made a comment that he'd never seen Mike submitted before and was surprised that it happened.  Mike said something like he's never seen him go against someone better before to which I said thank you!  In our second roll I started dominating as well.  I prevented some ankle locks and worked my way to a north/south choke but Mike timed his escape well.  He submitted me with something but I don't recall what.

Bhuvana: I attempted an omoplata on her first off and she defended it well with posture.  I went for a triangle instead and she kind of pulled me into mount to escape it.  Somehow I made my way to her back and she panicked a little bit and looked like she was preparing to tap.  I talked her through the escape and tried to calm her down a bit.  I then had her work to submit me with an americana from mount.  We went over the back mount escape and found some solace in realizing that she wanted to escape toward the underhook side.

Esteemed Collegues and Honorable Mentions:

A few of our guys competed last week in Circle of Iron and all placed.  Mike took 2 silvers, Jerad took silver and bronze, and Brian took silver.  Great job guys, way to represent!  There would have probably been more hardware but there was a pretty bad snow storm.

Ray returned for a few classes this week and his ankle seems to be treating him well so far.  It was awesome to see him back and hopefully he returns to full strength soon.

Henry had an exciting grappling match Saturday night in Missouri.  Henry dominates the match but it must have been submission only because they call it a draw: Grappling Match